Authoritative Links: Search Engine Land’s 10 Top Link Week Columns Of 2015

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When Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller said earlier this year that webmasters should "try to avoid" link building for SEO, many took this as a clear and unambiguous sign that link building as a practice was done for.

As search engines continue to crack down on spammy and manipulative links, quite a number of search marketers have begun to forgo link building altogether (often in favor of content marketing), fearing that the tactic is simply too risky.

But the fact remains that links are the most important off-page signal for search engine rankings, and strategic link acquisition is therefore critical for effective search engine optimization. For SEO efforts to reach their full potential, businesses and online marketers simply cannot opt out of link building.

It's no surprise, then, that readers were very interested in how to build links in a safe and white-hat manner — and Neil Patel's piece on how to do just that earned top honors within the Link Week columns this year.

As technology improves and automation becomes the norm, columnists also made the case for the value of manual link building this year. Link building expert Eric Ward's piece on why manual link building will never be obsolete was one of the top Link Week columns of 2015, and Andrew Dennis' response to this piece, which discussed why link building will never be replaced by content marketing, also made it onto the list.

Want more? Check out our top 10 link building columns of 2015:

5 Techniques To Safely Get Links In 2015 by Neil Patel, published on 2/20/15.Social activity: Facebook 733, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 32

What's The State Of Link Building For SEO In 2015 & Beyond? by Jayson DeMers, published on 3/16/15.Social activity: Facebook 702, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 9

5 Mistakes SEOs Still Make With Links & Content by Pratik Dholakiya, published on 9/30/15.Social activity: Facebook 893, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 26

How Search Engines Process Links by Jenny Halasz, published on 4/13/15.Social activity: Facebook 683, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 27

2016: Manual Link Building & SEO by Andrew Dennis, published on 11/24/15.Social activity: Facebook 715, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 200

The Most Important Thing SEOs Overlook: Internal Links by Patrick Stox, published on 10/29/15.Social activity: Facebook 711, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 11

10 Worst Link Building Habits by Julie Joyce, published on 10/13/15.Social activity: Facebook 523, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 16

Why Manual Link Building Will Never Be Obsolete by Eric Ward, published on 11/11/15.Social activity: Facebook 783, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 18

Link Risk Management: Are You Using This Critical SEO Tactic? by Stephan Spencer, published on 4/8/15.Social activity: Facebook 363, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 17

Link Building: No Longer About Manipulation by Andrew Dennis, published on 7/7/15.Social activity: Facebook 478, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 9

Methodology: Columns published in 2015 are ranked in order of page views measured by Google Analytics. Data includes all columns published through November 30, 2015. Social data provided by SharedCount.

About The Author Jessica Thompson is Associate Features Editor at Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. She is a well-rounded digital media enthusiast with a keen interest in all things Internet marketing. Jessica earned her B.A. in English from Drew University and has since gone on to fill a wide variety of roles over the course of her career, including web designer, copywriter, editor, SEO consultant, online marketing specialist and marketing manager. Most recently, she worked at Advance Digital, where she conducted digital optimization training for journalists and provided high-level SEO and social media recommendations for 12 major regional news websites, including NJ.com. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)
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